New Bishop Appointed to Thunder Bay

Tuesday, February 02 1999

(OTTAWA – CCCB)… His Holiness Pope John Paul II today named Most Rev. Fred Colli as Bishop of Thunder Bay. Bishop Colli has been Auxiliary Bishop of Ottawa since his episcopal ordination on February 22, 1995. The Diocese of Thunder Bay has been vacant since January 19, 1998, when Bishop Frederick Henry was appointed to the Diocese of Calgary.

Bishop Colli was the coordinator of Pastoral Services in the English sector of the Archdiocese of Ottawa, Vicar General, and Vocations Director.

He was born on June 17, 1949, in Saint Catharines, Ontario, and studied at St. Michael’s College at the University of Toronto, St. Augustine Seminary in Toronto, the Toronto School of Theology and the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome where he received a licentiate in Canon Law. He was ordained to the priesthood in 1975 for the Diocese of Saint Catharines.

Bishop Colli is currently the chairman of the Episcopal Commission for Social Communications (English sector) at the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops.

The Diocese of Thunder Bay has a Catholic population of 78,480 in 42 parishes and missions with 33 diocesan priests, 19 priests from religious orders, 20 permanent deacons and 52 religious sisters and brothers.